Page 24

“Are you okay?” she whispered in my ear.

I shook my head, still trembling.

She wrapped both warm arms around me and squeezed. “You faced your fear and did it. We need to keep going, though.”

“Right,” I said, stepping back and wiping off my cheeks. “Right.” I blew out a breath, turned, and followed in Bracken’s footsteps.

We had to go around an outcropping of rocks that cut off our line of sight to the other two. Once we’d made it around, we found Bracken alone, crouched low.

“What happened?” I asked. “Where’s Stheno?”

He pointed down to what looked like a horizontal slit in the rock. I crouched beside him and saw the opening. It looked to be perhaps a foot to a foot and a half high and three feet wide. The real issue was that it didn’t drop away once you made it through. No. It looked to go on for a trauma-inducing eight or ten feet before it opened into a cavern beyond.

Coco leaned down to peer into the dark hole. “No,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “Nononono. I can’t do that.”

“It’s not that bad,” Stheno said from inside. “Shove your bag through first, then shimmy in. As soon as I can reach you, I’ll grab your hands and pull.”

I recognized the terror in Coco’s eyes. “I’ll go first, okay? Look, you’re almost six feet tall. Once you’re in, you’re almost already out. And with your arms over your head, Stheno and I can pull you out quickly. Okay?”

“I can push your feet from this side,” Bracken volunteered, “if you think it will help.”

The sky had lightened to an indigo gray while we’d made our way down the cliff. Time was getting away from us. My hope was to get in and out during daylight hours before Clive woke. I didn’t want him tempted to enter the Underworld looking for me.

I took off my backpack and shoved it hard through the crack. Stheno snatched it out of the way on her side and then gestured for me to get a move on. I hated this too, but I sensed my fear of this was nothing compared to Coco’s, so I tried to put thoughts of getting stuck and being crushed out of my mind. I was unsuccessful, but I tried.

I glanced at Bracken, blew out a breath, and squeezed into the gap in the rocks. I went lightheaded as my heart raced, but I had to keep it together for Coco’s sake. I tried army crawling, but there wasn’t enough room for me to lift my butt up. Thankfully, the floor of the gap had been worn smooth over the ages, like the steps. I reached forward, fanned my fingers out, and dragged myself toward the cavern using only my hands.

Coco was bigger than me. This was going to be even harder for her. Maybe…

I’d been so busy trying to occupy my mind so I wouldn’t panic that I’d forgotten that Stheno was planning to help. Consequently, when hands grabbed my wrists, I may or may not have shrieked.

Once my arms emerged from the gap, I was able to grip the outside edge and drag the rest of me through all at once. I gave Stheno a quick hug. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She leaned over and shouted, “Next.”

I could hear Bracken speaking to Coco, but not the words. It didn’t matter. I knew he was talking her into going in. A couple of minutes later, her backpack slid through.

I reached in, grabbed it, and dropped it at our feet before ducking back into the gap. The lower half of my body was out, which made all the difference. I could extract myself when I needed to.

“Coco, I’ll get you,” I called. “I’ll grab your hands as soon as you’re close enough.”

The light was blocked as Coco moved into the gap. She covered half the distance almost immediately. Bracken must have shoved her feet, like he’d promised. The sound of her short, fast breaths were all that lay between us. She reached forward and dragged herself another foot. She reached out once more, and I was able to grab her hands and pull her out.

When she emerged, she sucked in a huge breath and shook herself, like I often did when I was in my fur.

I saw the light cut off again and leaned in once more to grab my great-uncle. As he had no one to push him, he took longer to drag himself across the claustrophobic gap. As soon as our hands could touch, I clutched him and pulled back, dragging him with me. Once his head was out, he pushed himself the rest of the way.

“Thank you so much.” He patted my shoulder before picking up his backpack. “That made it much easier.” He crouched beside Coco, who was sitting on the ground. “Better now?” he murmured.

Nodding, she rubbed a hand over her short-cropped hair and stood, shouldering her pack. We all grabbed our things and then turned around. We were in a dark cave. What little light that streamed through the gap didn’t make it more than a foot past it.

“Oh, allow me,” Bracken said. A ball of blue light appeared in his hand. He tossed it up in the air and we could suddenly see around us. It wasn’t bright, but it was enough. We were standing on the edge of a huge cavern that sloped down toward a wide river. Mist hung over the slowly moving water. We all knew there was something beyond the river, but we couldn’t see what.

“Here he comes,” Stheno said.

We all turned in the direction she was looking. Sure enough, through the mist, a cloaked figure used a long pole to punt the boat along the shore, stopping before us.

“Time to pay the ferryman,” he whispered, his hand outstretched.